Paramore lead singer Hayley Williams recently declared that transphobes, among others with bigoted beliefs, should not feel welcome at her concerts.

“I’ve always said, all are welcome at our shows,” Williams told Clash. “But I don’t want racists around, and I don’t want sexist people around, and I don’t want people there who think that trans people are a burden.”

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Williams said that boundary is “a hard line for me now.”

“I hope it naturally happens that people who do harbour those harmful ideologies aren’t going to feel welcome, because they’re going to walk in the door and realize that the gang’s all here, all banded together around something positive.”

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She added, “All are welcome if you believe all should be welcome… If you don’t believe that, you’re not welcome!”

Williams – who will begin touring in March after the launch of her solo album, Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party – has long spoken out for progressive causes and has made it clear she has no qualms with alienating fans who push hateful agendas.

While performing at the Adjacent Music Festival in Atlantic City in 2023, she told fans she is “very f**king comfortable talking politics.” She then brought up anti-LGBTQ+ Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who was running for president at the time.

“If you vote for Ron DeSantis, you’re f**king dead to me,” she told the crowd. “Is that comfortable enough for anyone?”

According to Twitter user @pmore_bb, who posted the clip at the time, Williams was responding to reports she said she’d seen online claiming that she is afraid to talk about politics while on tour with her band.

She supported Beto O’Rourke’s 2022 Texas gubernatorial campaign, and Paramore donated a portion of the proceeds from their fall 2022 tour to organizations providing reproductive care and access to abortion services following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in June 2022. Williams has appeared onstage wearing “Abort The Supreme Court” t-shirts.

She has also been an outspoken LGBTQ+ ally. In March, she performed at the Love Rising concert in Nashville, Tennessee, which benefited the Tennessee Equality Project, Inclusion Tennessee, Out Memphis, and the Tennessee Pride Chamber in Partnership with the Looking Out Foundation, following the passage of several anti-LGBTQ+ laws in the state, including the nation’s first statewide law banning drag performances.

“I can’t imagine being a person who spends their time thinking about how to limit anyone. I don’t understand that mindset,” she told GLAAD at the event. “My heart swells and it breaks for this community.”

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